According to the authors on the website where the video is located, “Susan Glaspell (1876–1948) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist, a writer of short stories, and, for a short while, a journalist. She was born in Davenport, Iowa, attended Drake University in Des Moines, and worked for several years as a reporter at the Des Moines Daily News and other local newspapers, but she discovered early on that her interest was in writing fiction. Her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered (1909), became a national bestseller and drew a rave review in the New York Times. Subsequent novels in the early teens did almost as well. Although she was widely regarded during her lifetime, Glaspell is little read or performed today, with one major exception: “A Jury of Her Peers” (1917). It was adapted from her one-act play, “Trifles,” written and produced in Provincetown a year earlier. Set in the rural Midwest, it was inspired by an actual murder that took place in Iowa in 1900, and which Glaspell had covered for the Des Moines Daily News.” The four-member panel of experts discuss Glaspell’s artistic rendering of the incidents making a strong case for how the story raises important issues of trial by jury and the interpretation and application of the law in capital punishment cases. It deeply probes the subject from a number of different angles, including application of the law in the early 20th century, especially in sparsely populated regions of the country, and among what appears to be a close-knit community of farmers. As you listen to the discussion consider the points that are made about the place of women in society in the early 20th century. Women could not vote or serve on a jury at this time. And note the personal dynamics among the speakers, two women and two men Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub and guest host Christopher DeMuth (Hudson Institute)
According to the authors on the website where the video is located, “Susan Glaspell (1876–1948) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist, a writer of short stories, and, for a short while, a journalist. She was born in Davenport, Iowa, attended Drake University in Des Moines, and worked for several years as a reporter at the Des Moines Daily News and other local newspapers, but she discovered early on that her interest was in writing fiction. Her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered (1909), became a national bestseller and drew a rave review in the New York Times. Subsequent novels in the early teens did almost as well.
Although she was widely regarded during her lifetime, Glaspell is little read or performed today, with one major exception: “A Jury of Her Peers” (1917). It was adapted from her one-act play, “Trifles,” written and produced in Provincetown a year earlier. Set in the rural Midwest, it was inspired by an actual murder that took place in Iowa in 1900, and which Glaspell had covered for the Des Moines Daily News.”
The four-member panel of experts discuss Glaspell’s artistic rendering of the incidents making a strong case for how the story raises important issues of trial by jury and the interpretation and application of the law in capital punishment cases. It deeply probes the subject from a number of different angles, including application of the law in the early 20th century, especially in sparsely populated regions of the country, and among what appears to be a close-knit community of farmers.
As you listen to the discussion consider the points that are made about the place of women in society in the early 20th century. Women could not vote or serve on a jury at this time. And note the personal dynamics among the speakers, two women and two men Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub and guest host Christopher DeMuth (Hudson Institute)